MRS BESANT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14281, 1 August 1908, Page 4

MRS BESANT.

.<> Mm Besant—more familiarly known is " Annie Besant," for the muss of mankind invariably clip formal titles from the rnoro distinguished of representative personswill arrive in Dunedin on the 6th instant to deliver the last Theosophical lectures of her New Zealand tour. Born in 1847, and now in her sixty-second year, Mrs Besant has abated none of her bodily or intellectual force, and is to-day acknowledged to be in the front rank as a public speaker. Glancing at her career in cursory fashion, fome have exclaimed: " Here is it woman who has been everything by turns, and nothing long." Christian, Agnostic, Thccsopiiist in matters religious; Conservative, Socialistic, and again Conservative in political opinion—tho hasty glance would reveal a lack of settled, steadfast views and a chancing attitude towards her environment. Those who take tho time and tho trouble to investighto her remarkable career more closely are rewarded by the discovery of the trait in her character which is a. constant quantity, and which has led Iter so far and by such strango roads. That trait is a great. a,surpassing love of humanity, born of a love of truth. Wherever there arc cruelty and oppression, fiaud and superstition, there is lack of right knowledge. Led always, as she has been, by a passionate desire to get at tho very heart and root of things—at the utmost meaning of all that by whioh she found herself surrounded—we find her abandoning one opinion after another, let does she never desert tho cause of the people—always alert for their good, always intent on their welfare—seeking for tho truth about mankind jo the end that tho lnisgovernment arising out of ignoranco might be replaced by a sana administration based' on everlasting law. And j'O, at last. Fate, in the person of Mr htcad, handed her the "Secret Doctrine for review, and the beginning Of the end of tho lon» search for. truth had conio to nor. Writing of this period in. her autobiography, Mrs Bosant says: "I was dazzled, blinded by the light in which disjointed faels were seen as a mighty whole, and all my puzzles, riddles, problems, seemed to disappear. The effect was partially illusory in one sense, in that they all had to be slowly unravelled later,, tho brain gradually assimilating that which the swift intuition had grasped as truth. But the light had been sseti. and in'that flash of illumination I knew that tho weary search was over, and that the very truth win found." From this haven of rest which no breakers from earthly tempests may invade, Mrs Bcsant. gazes with calm, untroubled eyes back upon her stormy career': her unhappy married • life and final parting from her husband; the tremendous conflict in her mind between faith and reason, which lasted for . two yours and three months, and nearly cost her her life—a struggle which transformed her from a Christian into tin Atheist;-then thd meeting with Charles Bradlaugh, and years of hard work. for freedom of 1 thought and the cause of tho oppressed. Tremendous was the storm of opposition, and that which was hardest to boar come from the agents of the Christian Evidence Society, who, "in their street preaching made the foulest accusations against mo of per?onal immorality." says Mis Besahl, addin? "' these indignities canscd me bitter suffering, outraging my pride, my koc<l. name. It is no longer —in London, where tlioy lived,, at anyrate— to defend either Mrs' Besant or Mr Bradlaugh against these baseless charges. In a tribute to Charles Bradlaugh, in l her autobiography, she says: " That men and women aro now able to speak and think as openly as they do, that a broader spirit is visible in tho churches, that heresy : is no longer regarded as morally disgraceful, these things are very largely duo to tho active and militant propaganda! carried on under the leadership of Charles Bradlaugh, whose-. nearest and most trustod • friend I was. .' I rejoice that I played my part in that _ educating of imglaud which has mode impossible for evermore tho crude superstitions of the P a st, «nd_ the repetition of the cruelties and injustices under which preceding lu'i'iitica suffered." Socialism came next, and here Jlrs Besant parted from Mr Bradlaugh. "Our private friendship remained unbroken ; 'but lie never again felt the same confidence in my judgment as lie felt bofore, nor did he anv more consult mc as to his own policy." Mrs Besant's Socialistic career was a long crusade against the unjust treatment meted out to the' workers in those days, and since largely mitigated— more through the • growing strength of trades unionism than from the growth of knowledge as to the true relations of man with his fellows and his God. This last and greatest knowledge, prccious beyond all rubies for the redemption of the world from the cancer-growth of poverty, camo to Mrs Besant from Madame Blavatsky. The opinions may be summarised, perhaps, bt\fc they probably would not securo Mrs Besant s return for any urban constituency in New Zealand. Mankind are verily brothel's, but of vastly different ages— ' 6omo old and wise, others young and foolish by reason of lack of cosmie-experi-enee. Tho wise must rule, or chaos wiSl sujely come. Tho younger brethren are— with exceptions—the mass of the people. It is true that the elder have in the past oppressed their younger brothers; but -by tho inerrant sifting of -tho gods such oppressors are reincarnated to environments of suffering, sometimes to menial labour, always to retributive punishment. Being wise, these lessons are learned quickly. The wise must, rule; but wisdom does not mean wealth, nor wealth wisdom. Kaoh man should have power according to his knowjedge and capacity. Nona should be without 6ome shard, but the power that lie' has should be limited to his knowledge, experience, and capacity; and only those should rule the nation wh have won their spurs in good administration oil national affairs. . . We. should take away from the State the cowor of allowing a mass of ignorant elector® » .. to upset international arrangements and. possibly, plunge us into war— or, worse, into dishonour." . . A truly aristocratic Socialism, controlled by duty, guided by wisdom, is the next step lipwards in civilisation."